will matter more. stocks are mixed right now after this morning's news. we've seen them go back and forth based on the jobs report. the first of three in this final stretch before election day. now at this hour of the campaign, the president and vice president are en route to new hampshire for a post-convention campaign rally. but it was last night on the convention floor that the president redefined hope and change and america's future. >> times have changed and i no longer just a candidate. i'm the president. if you turn away now, if you buy into the cynicism we talked about is not possible, then change will not happen. >> the president attempted to make the case as a choice in this election, using the words choice or choose more than 20 times. what did the president accomplish or not accomplish? >> ten minutes into the

president's speech last night, again, a speech not deep on substance, a speech with no surprises and i just sat there thinking game, set, match, barack obama connected himself with the american dream. >> president obama following joe biden who gave a heart felt speech to some americans on four more years. >> it's never been a good bet to bet against the american people. never. my fellow americans, america is coming back. and we're not going back. and we have no intention of down sizing the american dream. >> let's say good morning to our friday political power panel. we have matt miller. karen finny.

and susan. gang, it's the morning after. karen i start with you because the romney camp released a statement on the jobs report not wasting any time on this. saying if last night was the party this morning is the hangover. paul ryan also taking to taxpayer waves this morning on cnbc. take a look. >> this is not what president obama promised. i would argue this is the result of failed leadership in washington, bad fiscal policy coming from the administration and that's where we had this very tepid report. >> nbc's first read calls today's jobs report a win for romney and the gop. is anything over 8% bad news for the president with two more jobs reports left between now and election day? >> well, i know susan is going to say it's these jobs reports that will matter more than the speeches and actually i agree with that. here's the piece i think that this week the democratic party did a good job of making the

case that, again, congressman ryan as you say seems to forget he works in that building behind me and the reason that we are where we are is largely due to the fact that frankly we haven't had the opportunity to see all of president obama's ideas and policies implemented because of the level of obstruction from republicans. you've got these guys talking out of both sides of their mouth and you can't have it both ways. you can't attack the president and say his ideas aren't working when you never actually gave those ideas the opportunity to work. they blocked the jobs bill. they blocked the infrastructure spending that he wanted to do which would have created jobs. time and time again they have obstructed and blocked the things that the president wanted to do. he's been able to get some things done and largely the things he's gotten done have worked. >> susan, i'll let you jump in a second. i want to play an interview with krueger and chuck todd. take a listen. >> you said we're healing, is

the patient out of the hospital at least? >> you know, i think we're providing the patient the right medicine. i think it's important that we continue with that medicine. >> okay. let's continue with this narrative. >> the patient is in icu right now. we're in intensive care. no doubt about it. politically speaking, a tick down point two is great news for president obama. i do believe it's going to rest on the job numbers and this is, in fact, good news for him. it's what people feel. at the end of the day it's not what we tell the american people it's what they are going feel and they will vote with their pocketbook. >> last night the vice president made this really great point that it seemed as if republicans were talking through their convention about the demise of america and now we have this jobs number out. okay this, is good news. this is the right direction. they are not poo-pooing this. we're adding on to the fact

we're above 8% for 40 plus months. they are talking we're adding private-sector jobs for 30 months. >> it's a sobering reminder to everybody with less than 100,000 jobs when we're talking about millions upon millions of people who are under employed or looking for work. so, again, both sides will spin what they will do. they can't convince the person who is at home who has been out of work for two years that things are better off for them. >> matt, you wrote in the "the washington post" that the president's speech made you a little bit depressed, you didn't think the president went big enough. with monday morning quarterbacking what we saw last night what would you recommend he have changed to be bigger. >> first you have to note that when it comes to the jobs report today, it's absolutely the fact that barack obama sent the jobs bill up to the hill a year ago that all the independent analysts said would have added up to 2 million new jobs, so the republicans have been playing this game of be a struobstructi.

the reason i was depressed last night, progressives need to understand the way obama framed that speech last night and the choice, this election is defensive. it's about stopping bad things from happening. if mitt romney and the republicans get in and try and keep promises they made to roll back some of the gains, the idea that 30 million americans who were slated to get health coverage would never get that. the where that aid to college would be slashed, that aid to the poor would be slashed, all the tax cuts for the top. those are bad things. obama didn't call to us try and reach a new set in his second term of progressive solutions to big problems. so on college tuition, for example, obama said that we should rally around the goal of slowing the growth of tuition over the next ten years but that means student debt still going rise, tuition is still going rise. i think that's much too timid an

aspiration for a second term. obama has trimmed back his aspiration and made this a choice between something very bad that could happen and stay the course on a more modest set of goals. it seems hope and change we have to reap what we sow. we have to remember we're in this together. i want to play this part of the president's talk. take a listen. >> we also believe in something called citizenship. citizenship. a word at the very heart of our founding. a word at the very essence of our democracy. the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and future generations. >> is this the next degree of hope and change? >> well, absolutely. look, the president said four years ago as he reiterated last night, as he has a number of

times throughout his presidency, he can't do it alone. congress has a role to play. they have responsibility that they have largely, led by the republicans beabdicated. it's not about who built it, it's about we did it together. and his point is we've got to continue as citizens to help to apply the pressure to make sure that the things that we want happen because he can't to it all by himself. i take a little bit of issue i guess with what matt was saying because i think the whole point that the president is making is look, we set a course. we're trying to dig our way out of this hole. we got keep going. that's largely when you're talking about a president in a re-election mode when you have a dramatic choice between are we literally going to just jump back down into that hole or keep going he's saying we still that have right ideas, we got to make them happen. >> matt you said you were depressed after the president's

speech. you look at the dnc as a whole. are you more optimistic about the show they put on as compared to what the rnc did in tampa. >> the democrats did a great job with their convention. the bill clinton speech the other night was the highlight at least for me because he made the case in ways that really are better than the president makes about why the entire republican critique that we saw in tampa point by point can be rebutted in ways that reasonable people, that swing voters, that anyone -- clinton treated people as adults who could listen to a policy discussion and hear this and i think the democrats, the way they framed all of that, even john kerry i thought hit it out of the park yesterday on foreign policy, the democrats did very well for themselves and yet we're still headed to a very close race for the next couple of months. >> susan, you're shake being your head. a lot of people said this show was better produced, inspirational leadership for casting the sfrigs the dnc. the debates are coming up.

that's a critical time when we see these two men come together. >> a month ago wait until the conventions now it's wait until the first debate because that's going to be it. that's the defining moment. i don't think there will be a defining moment unless one side or the other messes up big time. the debates are important. some say it favors governor romney, others say it favors president obama. at the end of the day, the first debate will be interesting because there are longer answer times so it will be interesting to see how they use their time. >> thank you so much. greet to have you all here. so, if the markets are reacting like this to the jobs numbers, well what can we expect them to do next week after we have ridden this week out on a market high? as we mentioned 96,000 jobs added for the month of august but the number that many americans will be reacting to

the unemployment rate ticking down to 8.1%. i'm joined by senior analyst and commentator for cnbc. ron, first your reaction to the numbers. >> it's not a good report. the consensus expectation for 125,000 jobs created was fewer than that. the reason the un. employment rate went down is labor participation rate has fallen. people working as opposed to those that could has fallen. it's the type of report that may prompt the federal reserve to take steps next week to stimulate the economy further. while the unemployment rate came down that's a politically sensitive number. the economic numbers themselves are still disappointing on their face. >> some sectors are doing better than others. manufacturing took somewhat of a hit. what's behind that number >> that's a result of a weakening global economy. europe is in shashles. china is decelerating than people realize. our export growth is flagging.

that's the area that's affecting manufacturing. some can get fixed with a weaker dollar. thomas, oil take issue with one thing susan said in your political discussion which is that the patient, i.e., the economy is not in the icu any more. gdp is above the 2007 peak. retail sales above the 2007 peak. auto sales have gone from 9 million units to 14.5 million units. the economy is recovering. it is not fully recovered. there's large swaths of people hurting. that shows up mostly in this labor data that we got this morning. >> we have the markets all three reporting these record highs. >> not record highs. about four year highs. >> let's call four year highs a four year high. people will take it. we remember what happened in october of '08. we're doing pretty well. when we think about the private-sector and trillion of dollars of cash that they are sitting on they don't want to reinvest because they feel

unstabilized. why. >> there's sufficient demand in the united states but insufficient overseas. everyone continues to worry that another recession may very easily be around the corner given the slow down we're seeing. china has slowed down. brazil has slowed down. the big bric countries are not growing as rapidly. corporations are shepherding that cash. not willing to make full time commitments. the fed may try the stimulate next week, european central bank made a big announcement yesterday. this may help to turn things around. >> ron, always great to see you. breaking the unemployment rate down by race. african-american unemployment stands at 14.1%. unchanged from last month, down a year ago when it was in the 16% range. hispanic unemployment at 10% down by 1.1% from a year ago and

.1% from last month. back to the campaign trail. they are off to new hampshire and iowa. that's today. we give you a look at the home stretch strategy important the president and vice president. most emotional moment at the convention, hands down, did you see it, former congresswoman gabrielle giffords. talk to us. tell us what your favorite moment was from the dnc. always get to tweet me @thom @thomasaroberts. >> he loves his cars so much they have their own elevatoelev. but the people who design and build and sell those cars well in romney's world the cars get the elevator and the workers get the shaft. because when mitt romney did say let detroit go -- make just one t you - you sing to♪ ♪one smile that cheers you

♪one face that lights when it nears you.♪ ♪and you will be happy too. we create easy to use, powerful trading tools for all. look at these streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius! strategies, chains, positions. we put 'em all on one screen! could we make placing a trade any easier? mmmm...could we? open an account today and get a free 13-month e ibd™ subscription when you call 1-888-280-0157 now. optionsxpress by charles schwab. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week.

[ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. with chantix and with the support system it worked. it worked for me. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix s right for you.

when governor romney and his friends in congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy, well what bill clinton call it, you do the arithmetic. you do the math. i refuse to go along with that. and as long as i'm president i never will. >> it is game on and right now the president and vice president are taking their convention messages to the campaign trail. the candidate will be crisscrossing the country in the final 60 days to election day, 26 days until the first presidential debate. now today the president and vice president will speak in new hampshire and iowa. mitt romney will also speak in both states while paul ryan is visiting nevada. mike, explain the president's strategy as we advance into the homestretch. >> both campaigns are going to

hit the gas literally in the case of president obama and they are going to be hitting the air waves and it's all about those battle ground states, thomas. let's go over the schedule. these two campaigns will be shadowing each other. today the president starts his day in portsmouth, new hampshire. on to iowa later in the day where he'll remain overnight. mitt romney for his part switching on interests head start his day in iowa and then on to new hampshire. then the president hitting the gas literally over the weekend in florida. a two day bus trip, st. petersburg, kississime. mitt romney has an event in virginia beach. he's down on sunday. we understand he'll appear on "meet the press." no shortages of appearance for both these men

over the course of the next several days. >> must see tv for sure. mike, thank you. stay with msnbc for live coverage of today's campaign stop in new hampshire. there it is coming up at 12:20 for you. joining me now is msnbc contributor and former chief economist in economic policy advisor to vice president joe biden. as we dive deeper into these jobs numbers while the unemployment read did drop, job growth was weaker. let's take a look at the gop reaction. mitt romney was fast to say this is more the same for middle class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery. house speaker john boehner weighed in. and house majority leader, eric cantor saying these jobs numbers aren't good enough. no president has been re-elected

with an unemployment rate above that 8% mark. is the president facing a head wind or a tail wind on the direction of the jobs before this election? >> i call it more of a head wind in the since we've seen some deceleration in the pace of job growth. by the way i thought eric cantor said something to the effect this ain't enough. that's something the president would absolutely agree with. but i thought some of the other comments he played were kind of over the top in the sense that the president can very legitimately say we are moving in the right direction. we're moving there too slowly and as i mentioned more slowly than we were say four or five months ago. in fact, the growth rate of jobs is pretty consistent with an economy that's expanding but at a pace that's too slow to provide workers with the employment and the opportunities that they need. the one thing i'll say about the president in all of this, he actually proposed taking out insurance against precisely this kind of weakness with the

american jobs act about a year ago and of course congress blocked him. >> your old boss, the vice president, joe biden, eveshamering away on the struggles of the middle class. has been doing so on the campaign trail. never been more vocal than he was last night. take a look. >> i don't think he understood that saving the automobile worker, saving the industry, what it meant to all of america, not just auto workers, i think he saw it the bain way. i mean this sincerely. i think he saw it in terms of balance sheets and write offs. >> both sides want to go after the middle class, the democratic national convention certainly did not walk away from owning the fact that they saved the auto industry with the bailout and under the president's leadership that they were able to save so many jobs in different sectors of the auto industry and around the country. attorney general delaware bo

biden said the gop is going after his dad because the vice president is scoring points with the middle class. what's your reaction. did biden do what he needed to do last night to remind people what they've done? >> very much so. remember, joe biden was the first big speech after bill clinton knocked that out of the park so that was a tough act to follow and i thought the vice president did so with a very compelling speech. i don't think i had ever heard a senior administration official like that spend that much time on the autos. it's been a source of criticism. many of us wondered why don't you spend more time talking about that success. nobody feels that deeper than joe biden who really does connect to the middle class and i think you saw that last night. >> great to have you. thank you. much more on the democrats big week in charlotte straight ahead. in case you missed it, one of the most emotional parts of the convention came from gabrielle giffords. she brought the delegates to tears when she took to the stage

to deliver the pledge of allegiance. >> i -- >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, liberty and justice for all. [ cheers and applause ] hey. hey eddie. i brought your stuff. you don't have to do this. yes i do. i want you to keep this. it'd be weird. take care. you too. [ sighs ] so how did it go? he's upset. [ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations. with best in class fuel economy. it's our most innovative altima ever. ♪

then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments. ♪

oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners.

>> it took president obama against the advice of many to give that order and finally rid this earth of osama bin laden. ask osama bin laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago. >> senator john kerry bashing mitt romney on everything from mitt romney to russia last night, not what usually is

execute at a democratic convention. did the dems steal the republicans foreign policy thunder. from vegas to afghanistan, prince harry back on duty just weeks after that highly publicized naked party. how he was shipped off next. out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. [ villager 1 ] it's evil! if you'd try it, you'd know. she speaketh the truth! [ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪

my name is adam frucci and i'm the i love new technology,om. so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out you just sync your american express card securely to your twitter account, tweet specific hashtags,

and you'll get offers on things you love. this totally changes the way i think about membership. saving money on the things you want. to me, that's the membership effect. nice boots! >> brothers and sisters, do you want to go back? >> no. >> do you want to keep america moving forward? >> yes. civil rights icon congressman john lewis, one of the many speakers who brought down the house last night at the democratic national convention. now with all the power and passion at the podium this week, will that translate into a post-convention bounce for president obama? joining me is the direct junior of university of virginia center for politics. polls showing mitt romney saw no real bounce following his convention in tampa, gallup's

daily tracker put him down one point among national voters. the president is coming off what's been deemed a successful convention and jobs report bottom line will result in headlines that say unemployment dropped in august. could those factors add up to a really nice size bounce for president obama that romney missed out on? >> well they could, thomas. i tell the truth, i was surprised that there wasn't even a small bounce for romney. normally conventions produce that. i'll be equally surprised if there isn't a bounce for barack obama as you mentioned perhaps the jobs report this morning will depress that. but, you know, we also have to remember that the long term trend in the united states is for smaller and smaller audiences in this 400 channel universe to be watching conventions. look at the numbers. the people at your network, youchl, are watching it closely. essentially you have the

democrats, democratic base watching the democratic convention, the republican base watching the republican convention. if you add the two groups together you get about a third of the people who actually are going to vote in november. two-thirds of the voters didn't tune into the conventions. >> so if we think about this post-convention bounce and as you're saying you would be surprised if you don't see something, really what they are going after because the people that are all within that time warner arena or in tampa that's preaching to the choir. they are trying to get the disaffected voters to pay attention to what they have to say. tuning from the president's standpoint, what we saw from the dnc did they strike the right tone to get people to perk up and pay attention? >> well, of course it's so complicated because there were some speakers. some speakers struck that tone. i think the major speakers did, particularly michelle obama. that was kind of a broad based address that would appeal more broadly to nonpolitical people.

bill clinton to a certain degree. president obama was more like mitt romney. i think there was more preaching to the choir in those final night addresses by romney and obama than there was anything else. you have to do that too. you have to energize the base. i'll tell you again, what strikes me is how dug in people are this year. i don't think anything is going to change very much. this will be a close competitive contest, probably all the way to the end. >> they will be fighting it out all the way to the end. >> politics and foreign policy taking center stage during the final night of the democratic national convention. after a video narrated by tom hanks which highlighted the death of osama bin laden and the strength of the american military, a grouch veterans including some retired generals took the stage as the crowd said thank you. massachusetts senator and 2004 presidential candidate john kerry took the opportunity to

skewer mitt romney. >> he was against a date on withdrawal, said it was right and then threat impression it was wrong to leave too soon. he said it was tragic to leave iraq and then fine. mr. romney here's a little advice. before you debate president obama on foreign policy you better debate yourself. >> my opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy. but from all that we've seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering. you don't call russia our number one enemy not al qaeda but

russia unless you're caught in a cold war era time warp. general, great to see you. watching all of this i'm sure you were probably just as confused as a lot of people, there are donkeys behind these speakers and not elephants. the way so forcefully, some of the speakers came out especially the president, john kerry as well, talking about the democratic position on foreign policy, on afghanistan, on iraq, the death of osama bin laden. do you think it's taken the republicans and put them back on their heels to see democrats come out so strongly. >> it has. i think this is the real end of the post-vietnam alignment of the parties the. for that whole period of 30 or 40 years republicans could be daddy party on security and democrats were the mommy party of gentler, softer. that's no longer the case.

barack obama's foreign policy has been robust and tough. not just getting osama bin laden, but surging into afghanistan, redeploying our assets and pivoting towards asia. this is a real geostrategic policy of the united states, crafted by a democratic president, which is strong, forward, robust and effective. >> how do you think that these front end center conversations and direct conversations from the dnc parallel to the fact that the rnc ignored it and how that will play out within the military community? while we do have active military members on the ground in afghanistan, there was respect paid to them from the dnc where the rnc we're hearing more things about, you know, almost war mongering from the speech of john mccain all the way to mitt romney as well. >> look, the military votes and how they vote ought to be private and personal. what we don't want is the

military as a constituency within the american political community. they have to be loyal to the commander-in-chief no matter what party he's from. but i do know that military families and veterans are very appreciative to president obama because he and michelle have been very forward and very strong in supporting them, their needs, their sympathy. the president has visited walter reed as he said on several occasions he didn't want to keep going back to walter reed. it feels it personally in a way that the commander-in-chief has to. i think that feeling is behind his conviction that we're not going to go to war unnecessarily but we're going to have a strong effective foreign policy. >> general wesley clark, great to see you. thank you. so coming up straight ahead we talk about what happened with prince harry. eofficially back on military duty just weeks after being caught on camera at that vegas hotel, the 27-year-old royal landing in afghanistan earlier

today to begin a four month deployment. they are flying apache attack helicopters. this shaer's second tour in afghanistan. he's known as captain harry wales. focus is shifting to the case of drew peterson's fourth wife. authorities say charges could be on the way this comes after the 58-year-old was convicted yesterday of murdering his third wife, kathleen savio in 2004. his fourth wife disappeared three years later and has never been found. company face 60 years behind bars. tonight on "dateline", a full hour on the drew peterson verdict. interviews with family members on both kathleen savio and stacey peterson sides. the school year has just begun but this date of birth last day of class for thousands of kids and students in chicago. teachers there are threatening to strike amid contract talks and if that happens they won't be at work on monday. nbc's kevin tibbles joins me from chicago. where do things stand, kevin?

>> reporter: it's an upsetting time for some 400,000 students here in chicago the third largest school district in the nation. where do things stand? i can report to you with some encouragement that both sides are saying today that some meaningful progress has been made in the talks but, again, it is friday. it's coming down-to-the-wire. and many of the students have been told that they are not showing up at cool on monday. that's obviously going to be a great concern to many parents, many working parents in the chicago area. there have been some contingency plans put in place. some 160 schools will be open on a drop in basis where kids will be served breakfast and lunch and given activities to do. but obviously that will not accommodate everyone. a number of church, some 60 churches are also going to be open and being called places of safe-haven, places for kids to go on monday should classes not

be taking place. but, obviously, this is of a great concern. the mayor has not really gotten involved in this. he said he's standing behind his bargaining committee. thomas, in the last couple of hours there have been spokes people from the teachers union saying that positive steps have been made towards an agreement but, again, as we go into the weekend, it is friday, the teachers have been told to sort of take their equipment, their tools of the trade with them when they go home today in hopes that in case this strike does take place, let's just hope that over the weekend they can hammer something out. >> a major hiccup at the start of the school year. kevin, thank you. if you're sick of hearing me approve this message believe me so am i. >> coming up the super p.a.c. attack. if you thought the campaign ads were bad now just wait because things are about to get worse.

plus bill clinton versus nfl. you might need a coin toss to determine who won the ratings. and who do you think won the night? tweet me your answer @thom @thomasaroberts. approved! [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ]

humans. even when we cross our "t"s and dot our "i"s, we still run into problems -- mainly other humans. at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. [ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy?

[ male announcer ] finally, mom's oven-baked tastes straight from the microwave. like oven-roasted chicken in a creamy alfredo sauce. marie callender's new comfort bakes. it's time to savor. now we need a little bit more... a little bit more vanilla? this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions... because the results... are you having fun doing this? yeah. that's a very nice cake! [ male announcer ] well, you can't beat them. [ giggles ] ohh! you got something huh? whoa... [ male announcer ] humana understands the value of spending time together that's a lot of work getting that one in! let's go see the birdies. [ male announcer ] one on one, sharing what you know. let's do it grandpa. that's why humana agents will sit down with you, to listen and understand what's important to you. it's how we help you choose the right humana medicare plan for you. because when your medicare is taken care of, you can spend more time sharing your passions. wow.

[ giggles ] [ male announcer ] with the people who matter most. i love you grandpa! i love you grandma! now you're a real fisherman. [ male announcer ] humana. welcome back, everybody. want to take you straight out to sioux city, iowa. we follow mitt romney on the campaign trail. he's talking to reporters. >> approximately four people dropped out of the workforce. seeing that kind of report is obviously disheartening to the american people who need work and are having a hard time finding work. real incomes, real wages are also not rising. this is a tough time for the middle class in america. there's almost nothing the president has done in the last 3 1/2, 4 years that gives the american people confidence. knees what he's doing when it comes to jobs and the economy and there's nothing he said last night that gives the american people confidence that he knows what he would do to create jobs

or build a stronger economy. so i think we have a very clear choice as people consider two people running for the presidency of the united states, and i hope that want my message will continue to connect with the people of america and they understand how my plan and the five steps of my plan will put 12 million people to work and bring rising take home pay. >> governor, give us a sense of your mindset coming out of the convention. are you satisfied you got enough of a bounce. >> i'm pleased people got to know me better. that's one of the things we hoped to receive from our convention. rather than 30 second ads we had much more time to talk to american people. those that took the time to watch and listen in depth to the things that were said in the convention, i think got a better picture of what i stand for, what i do to get america working again. >> governor romney, you have been criticized for not mentioning afghanistan in your nominating speech. do you regret not mentioning snafg. >> talked about our military and our commitment to our military and the fact that the president has actually proposed and is

going to oversee a dramatic cutback on our military, we learned from the woodward book or excerpts from it that apparently the idea of the sequestration in cutting our military came from the white house. and so, yeah, my speech talked about maintaining our commitment to the military. as you know i took time out from our convention go to the american legion, speak to our veterans and speak about our commitment in afghanistan and elsewhere. the president didn't have time, apparently to go the american legion as die. >> all you're offering are the same prescriptions that got us into this mess. >> five steps. number one, energy independence for north america within eight years. by taking advantage of natural gas, by going after tight oil, by bringing in a pipeline from canada. a whole series of other things including the doubling of number permits and leases on federal lands. that wasn't talked about in the past. number two, fixing our schools

and improving our job training programs. that's something also that's quite new. number the three opening up new trade agreements particularly in latin america and cracking down on china. going after china for currency manipulation. that's something neither president bush or president obama has done. balancing our budget. president bush and president obama neither one made the kind of steps on that front that i think need to be made. number five, championing small business. i think that's critical. nobody has spoken about that i can recall in quite a while and particularly getting rid of obama care. so the five steps i've described are new, i'm happy to go into them in great detail. i you know don't have the time. but i'll do it more in the rally. we go back ten, 20 years, we had a very different type of economic setting where china was a small participant on the world

stage economically. today it's a major player and we have to consider our economic policies in light of how the world has changed. >> governor romney, the race over the last couple of months has obviously been very close despite everything that obama has going against him. what will you do to break it open over the next two months. >> i'll keep talking about what i believe, describe my vision for the future and have people get a chance to observe what's been occurring. i think that the message from last night was that the president's plan is four more years of the four last years. and i don't think the american people want four more years of the four last years. i think they want to see more jobs, they want to see their kids coming out of college able to get jobs, they want to see rising incomes again. there's no question if they listened to the president last night he gave them no confidence whatsoever that he has any plan to make america's economy start to create the jobs he ought to

be creating. >> what about this intervening into the economy. do you think that's not a very good idea? >> i don't think qe3 as being described is going to have the economic impact that i think the nation is looking for. i think what we found is qe2 was less effective than we had hoped it might create jobs, and frankly, i think what we're looking for is a kind of commitment in washington to fixing the structural problems that are making it hard for our economy to recover. some of those problems have been put in place by the president. >> it's starting to look like republicans are cheering against any moves to try to help the economy. >> the republicans are fighting for moves to help the economy. my five-step plan is designed to get the economy going. you're not going to get this economy going unless you do the things i described. and if you continue with the president who as you saw last night, had no ideas about what to do for the economy, maybe he's going to look to the fed and hope that they can try and do something but that's not him.

that's an independent group of individuals at the fed. what is he going to do to get this economy going? and all he said last night was the same as what he said four years ago which by the way, he made a lot of promises four years ago. can you think of any of those promises that was met? he was going to create jobs, we haven't. lower unemployment, he hasn't. rising take-home pay, it's gone down. cut the cost of health insurance by $2500, it's gone up by $2500. create new businesses, we're a 30-year low. cut the deficit in half, the deficit is double what it was. the president has been unable to deliver on virtually any of the promises he made when he ran for office four years ago. the idea that the american people are going to accept the same promises again would be one that i think would be flying in the face of america's ability to understand what's in their best interest. >> how do you respond to the

president saying last night that you're not ready for diplomacy in beijing if you can't go to london without offending one of our closest allies? >> i'm very pleased that my olympic experience allows me to talk about the olympics in a straight talk manner and i think it would be appropriate if the president would talk to china in a straight talk manner. they have manipulated their currency for well over a decade. they have taken american jobs and i think it's totally appropriate to show backbone and strength as we deal with other nations around the world. nothing wrong with telling people the truth. thanks, guys. >> that was governor mitt romney taking some questions from reporters as he lands in sioux city, iowa. he will be having a rally that he's holding there. i want to get this right, in orange city, iowa, a victory rally at northwestern college there later today. but taking questions from reporters there on everything from the jobs report that came out this morning, the lack of bounce that he got from his convention in tampa, and also taking questions about the lack

of discussion about afghanistan from his speech and the rest of the speakers at the republican national convention. however, he did defend himself by saying that he did mention the military during his time there in tampa. all right. so we move on and we're talking about sarah palin who? the former alaska governor says she is surprised that senator john kerry even knew her name and that he quote, diminished himself after making reference to her in his speech last night. >> folks, sarah palin said she could see russia from alaska. mitt romney talks like he's only seen russia by watching "rocky iv." >> palin said on fox business she thought it was funny that he would take a pot shot like that. >> i think he diminished himself by even mentioning my name. how does he even know my name. aren't these guys supposed to be these big-wig elites who don't waste their time on the little people like me?

>> you were almost vice president. how does he not know who you are? speaking of a vice president, joe biden got a little choked up last night after his son bo nominated him for a second term. >> it's my great honor to place into nomination for the office of vice president of the united states my father, my hero, joe biden. >> all right. a lot of eyes were on the first daughters. malia and sasha, who are growing before america's eyes, and they are good sports, especially when their dad makes a joke at their expense. >> malia and sasha, we are so proud of you. and yes, you do have to go to school in the morning. >> so a cute moment. kind of similar to their shout-out on election night back in '08. remember this? >> sasha and malia, i love you both more than you can imagine

and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the white house. >> they got that puppy. a touchdown for former president bill clinton. an estimated 25.1 million people watched his speech between 10:00 and 11:00, just over 20 million were watching the giants and cowboys game at that very same time. so it was a big week in social media. who won in tweets? msnbc's richard lui joins me. i understand the democrats have set a record out there. >> yeah, good day, thomas. looking at the numbers, a new day, a new record. the big dnc party was a 9.5 million tweet convention, a number not seen before. a big part of that was from yesterday which set the single day convention record with four million tweets. the man who now has the highest tweets per minute of all convention speeches, president obama. he hit over 52,000 tweets per minute right after the end of his speech.

his number two was also number two for the night. vice president biden reached just under 18,000. a good number on any other night, but this was no other night. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> representative gabbi giffords got 3200 tweets're minute and for some, it may have been too tough to text through tears. our final results for tweets, the star of the rnc finished fifth. back to you. >> thank you, buddy. i appreciate it. thank you for watching. i appreciate your time. that will wrap things up for me today. have a great weekend. see you back here on monday at

11:00 a.m. don't go anywhere. "now" with alex wagner comes your way after this quick break. s thdecrhe] optond em siov y

olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back